water rights
Candidates talk water as Whatcom wells run dry
Nooksack watershed and Whatcom County leaders face lower streamflows, higher stream temperatures, less snow runoff and higher temperatures. What do candidates say?
Claims about Nooksack water rights must meet fact test
Commentary: Collaboration is the only way to solve the twin problems of too little water at one time, too much at another, in the Nooksack Basin.
Understanding water rights adjudication
Commentary: Recent letters to editors and from local officials demonstrate misunderstanding of “water rights adjudication.”
Grant to fund collaboration plan for solutions to Nooksack Basin water issues
Interested parties hope Solutions Table funding approved by the Whatcom County Council this week will spark collaborative work toward holistic solutions for water availability in the Nooksack River basin.
Floods, fish and farming intersect in Nooksack Basin’s complex challenge
As Whatcom County works to prepare for the next major flooding events and to foster community resilience, a discussion on long-term solutions and ways to promote salmon population and environmental preservation along the Nooksack River is taking shape.
For the people: what local legislators plan for the 2022 session
Dealing with climate change, providing economic relief post-COVID-19 and ensuring sustainability for the Washington State Ferries system made the priority lists of elected officials returning to take care of the people’s business when the 2022 session opens Jan. 10.
Nooksack Tribe and partners face up to climate change challenge on South Fork Nooksack River
Since long before more than 2,000 chinook salmon died this summer before they could spawn in the South Fork Nooksack River, the Nooksack Indian Tribe has been working with a wide range of partners to plan for supporting at-risk habitat and species. A new report from the tribe aims to translate the science and put boots on the ground.
Clock starts on Nooksack basin water rights inventory; stakeholders yet to discuss solutions
Weeks of sparse rainfall and a historic heat wave marked the end of June — and the start of a process to establish water rights among various users in Whatcom County’s Nooksack River basin.
Doing the work of the people: Nooksack adjudication, Billy Frank, Jr., statue and a wrap-up of 40th and 42nd legislator success
How did bills introduced by 40th and 42nd District legislators fare in the session ending on April 25? See an update on the full list: planning for zero-emissions transportation, standardizing definitions around homelessness to help improve services, and more.
A next step to resolve Nooksack water rights waits on legislative budget decision
The state Department of Ecology has announced its intent to resolve the contentious issues around water rights in the Nooksack Basin through the legal action of adjudication, and money to move that process forward is proposed in the budget under consideration by the Legislature.
Doing the work of the people: legislation introduced by 40th and 42nd District legislators
A month into the 2021 state legislative session, it’s time to review the legislation introduced by our elected representatives as of this week.
Community Voices / Nooksack water rights adjudication is an existential threat to farming’s future
Whatcom County farmers say they view water rights adjudication as an existential threat to their future, in their long-term battle to maintain farming as part of the local economy and culture.
Community Voices / Whose water is it in Whatcom County?
This may surprise you: Water, even in wet Whatcom County, is a scarce resource.